This week on Maker Update: An Arduino picture painter, tufting rugs, an RC snow speeder, DIY motion-control camera rigs, a scratch-built industrial robot arm, LED stick person costume, and an answer to the question “should I have used a 555 timer?”

Guest host: Becky Stern
https://beckystern.com/

++Show Notes [Maker Update Ep.227]++

-=Project of the Week=-

Portable Portrait Painter by Ben Lucy
https://www.instructables.com/Portable-Portrait-Painter/

-=More Projects=-

RC Sno-Speeder by Simple Electronics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxnLXHB2Wzc

Rug Tufting 101 by BrittLiv
https://www.instructables.com/Rug-Tufting-101/

Example of rug tufting #1: Shmoxd YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLJNd0z1Hp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by9DDnMZumw

Example of rug tufting #2: CurieGOAT YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYf8vlabTp0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJm_zphSj4

Fist-Controlled Orbiting Camera Robot by Pave Workshop
https://www.instructables.com/Orbital-Filmmaking-Robot-Controlled-With-Your-Fist/

Automated Overhead Camera Assistant by KronBjorn
https://www.instructables.com/Automated-Overhead-Camera-Assistant-for-Instructio/

7-Axis Articulated Robot by Jeremy Fielding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMSLPefUVeE

LED Stick Person Costume by Erin St. Blaine
https://learn.adafruit.com/led-neon-stick-person-costume

-=Tips & Tools=-

Miami PCB Vise by Colin Hickey
https://youtu.be/imiprMexdSE

Replace Batteries in an Old UPS by MKme Lab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7srJagLVWg

Arduino vs 555 Timer Comparison by Clem/Mayer Makes for element14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYfef5qissU

Transcript

This week on Maker Update: An Arduino portrait painter, tufting rugs, an RC snow speeder, DIY motion-control camera rigs, a scratch-built industrial robot arm, LED stick person costume, and an answer to the question “should I have used a 555 timer?”

Hi, I’m Becky Stern, back hosting another episode of Maker Update.
Let’s get right into it with the project of the week.

The portable portrait painter by Ben Lucy has alliterated its way into my heart. This impressive build takes a photo, then draws it using a brush pen on a little XY gantry. It’s all built inside a wooden box for portability, and uses an Arduino Mega as its brain, to both capture and display the image as well as operate the gantry.

The brush pen holder’s got a little motor in it, and as it drags across the paper, it presses down harder or lighter depending on the darkness or lightness of the pixels in the image.

I love the lo-fi aesthetic of the resulting portraits. I also love Ben’s explanation of the histogram equalization that was necessary to increase the image contrast, which he covers in his video about the project.

Ben’s got all the source files online including code and PCB files on github, and a very detailed Instructable with all the 3D printable parts and instructions for building one yourself.

More projects! On YouTube, Simple Electronics posted up this remote-control snow speeder they’ve been working on all winter. It skates across frozen surfaces under propeller power. The build video is fascinating tour through the design and engineering considerations. I particularly liked hearing about the improvement ideas that came out of the first test, which happened to also be the last snow.

I think we can all relate to this build. Haven’t we all spent a whole season working on a project, just to test it once, and then not have another opportunity for three more seasons? Well I can wait, and I look forward to seeing version two of the Sno-Speeder next year.

Over on Instructables, BrittLiv has an introductory tutorial for rug tufting, which seems to be everywhere these days. The basic idea is to use a hollow hand needle or an automated tufting gun to repeatedly stab at some taut fabric, catching loops of yarn as it goes. The loops build up to form the pile of the rug, and can be left as loops or cut to change the surface texture.

For rug tufting inspiration, two YouTubers come to mind: Shmoxd and CurrieGOAT. They both have great videos showing the creative process of designing a rug and the soothingly sped-up tufting process in action.

But Britt’s guide shares the less glamorous details you need to know to be successful in tufting
your own rug, like a breakdown of the different material choices, and how to fix mistakes. Check it out.

Also on Instructables this week, check out these two interesting camera automations. The first is a 3D printed motion-control overhead rig by KronBjorn. This thing is all 3D printed, and designed to add movement to instructional videos. I think it’s so neat how it can animate between keyframes, and I love it when folks post all the files you need to build your own.

The second is a gesture-controlled orbiting cam by Pave Workshop. It’s controlled by a Kinect hooked up to a laptop running some gesture recognition software, so he can control the movement of the camera mount using hand signals. You know, so you don’t have to take your welding gloves off to get that perfect shot. The track and moving platform are largely constructed from laser-cut MDF.

On his YouTube channel, Jeremy Fielding introduces a new mega project he’s working on– it’s a 7-axis articulated robot arm, designed from scratch. This thing is insane. In this first video of the series, Jeremy gives a great intro to the concepts and challenges at play for such a powerful piece of machinery, as well as a preview of all the smaller constituent projects to come. I learned a lot already and am looking forward to more.

Over on Adafruit, Erin St. Blaine posted an approachable guide to making an LED stick person costume from super diffused neon-like LED strip. It’s single-color so there’s no programming involved, just a bit of soldering. I like that it uses Velcro strips, making it easy to wear on the outside of your clothes for something like night skiing. The loop for the head goes around a bike helmet, which I also think is clever.

And now for some tools and tips. Colin Hickey posted up a new cylindrical 3D printed circuit board vice he calls the Miami… vice. The base is filled with sand to weigh it down, and the top threads onto the bottom to pinch your circuit board. Workholding tools have a bad reputation for being fiddly and annoying, so I particularly like the idea of a vice without any fuss.

MKme Lab shows us how to replace old batteries in an otherwise working UPS, or uninterruptable power supply. This video shows off some great battery fundamentals while reducing e-waste. I’m into it.

And lastly, Clem aka Mayer Makes over at element14 has a fun build comparing an Arduino microcontroller to a 555 timer. He documents the considerations of each, while thoroughly addressing this common point of contention among electronics makers. He builds tiny slot car racers two times, once with a 555 and the other with an Arduino.

And that about wraps it up for this week’s show. Be sure to like and subscribe, and let me know your thoughts in the comments. Sign up for the weekly Maker Update newsletter so you never miss a thing, and thanks for watching.